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A Syllabus of Issues Facing t he C hurc h College
Pre-Workshop Paper, Apri I, 1964
John H. Yoder
lntroducti on
understand my assignment in the present paper to be that of raising issues rather than
suggesting the i r resol ution o Now an issue is live only if a case can be made fo r more
t han one possible answer . My task can t herefore be more narrowly defined as demon-st
rati ng t hat t here actuall y are issues concern ing which it would be possible to arrive
a t different concl usions from t hose current ly susta ining t he church college o This will
mean I shall be taking t he role of 11devil 1s advocate" , giving more a ttention to the
less popu lar side of any given debate .
At some points it may be possi ble for me to ske tc h t he na ture of an issue without taking
sides a t al I; in other places the only way to make an issue come al ive may be to argue
for one possible sol ution o Even where suc h argument might represent my tentatively
settled conclusion (which will not always be t he case), t he purpose of t he a rgumen t is
to open and not to close conversation on t he issue o
One of the issues a t stake is t he very method of choosi ng which issues a re importan L
Many ana lyses of problems of higher education come out with just one or two issues
t hought to be fundamen tal to t he o t hers o Any such selection of only one or two pro-blems
t hought to be crucial wou ld prejudge t he e valuative process which we have just
ba rel y begun in preparation for next August 0s wo rkshop . I shal I t herefore a ttempt to
lay out a greater number of issues, classifi ed bu t not sifted , leavi ng it to t he study
process of t he larger communi ty to det e rmine whi c h a re t he most cha I lenging and pro-mising
o
O ne way to na rrow somewhat ou r task will be to label some issues which , al t hough
q uite impo rtant fo r t he Christian 's total int el lect ual experi ence , do not necessaril y
correlate with t he institution of t he c hu rch college . Oft en in t he books I have been
read ing one finds discussions of the Christian 's reason for wanti ng to "pursue t he t ru t h 11 ,
as if "t he pursuit of trut h" were t he best desc ri pti on of the undergraduate educational
process; certa inly a misunderstanding of what the college teacher does with most of his
t ime o Simi larl y, discussions of t he relationship between teaching and research, or of
t he t heo logical assumpti ons which perm it t he Christi an to be a scholar or a scientist,
do not di rectl y speak to whether the church shou ld be operating colleges.
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I. Issues Arising From the Passing of t he Pionee r Age
A. The Job Well Done
The more precisely one defines t he ind ispensable appropriateness and the
unique c reat iveness of the frontie r col lege , t he mo re clear does it become
t hat t he situati on which called forth t hat cha rac te risti c Ame ri can institution
has passed . From t he open ing of the western te rritories to t he first world
war, a situation was made to o rde r fo r t he contribution which only such
institutions could offer .
What needed to be done was to tra in t he el ite mino rit y who would pro-vide
the cul tural backbone of the transcon ti nental society coming into
be ing . It was a task which could be done on a shoestri ng, wit h teaching
met hods and t he cu rricu lum hardl y open to much va ri a ti on . Bri nging
civil izat ion to a continent was a t the same t ime a vision of exhilarating
magn itude , and a job which was going to have to be done by ordinary
people doing what t hey knew how to do .
It is the very fact t hat t his job was done by vol unta ry agencies which has
changed t he situa tion so t hat t he ir con tri but ion is no longer of the same
nature. The effectiveness of t heir educati ng an el ite was so great that now
far greater numbe rs of young people must be served a t t he college and
un iversi ty level; e ven wit hou t inc reasing spec ial izati on and t he growing
costs of libraries and labora to ri es , to opera te on t he needed scale would
be financially impossible for vol unta ry agenc ies . It is t he very vision of
educati onal excellence foste red by t he fronti e r schools a t t hei r best which
set t he pattern for a level of qual ity which t hey now fi nd t hemselves hard
pushed to provide fo r even a minority of t he young people interested in
college . It is t hus a recogn iti on of t heir achie vemen t when t he larger
soc iety , both t hrough the instrumen t of the sta te and by t he "secularizing"
of the larger chu rch-related school s, has pro vi ded instituti ons which wi 11
be do ing t he bulk of edu cati ng .
Now t ha t it is clear t ha t t he task wi 11 be done one way or anot her and that
society is not utterl y dei;>enden t upon the chu rches• services , we need a
whole new rat ionale if we a re to be able honest ly to make a case for what
could be taken fo r gra nted in anot he r age . Why now t he chu rch college?
(I indica ted above t ha t t he re a re some concerns related to t he Christi an
in schola rship which do not connect direc t ly with t he issue of t he churches '
call to support colleges . It is t he ma rk of the emba rrassment of some chu rch
college t hinking a t t he presen t t ime tha t we fi nd more disc ussion abou t the
nature of trut h and t he Chri sti an 's obl igati on to be cul turally creative,
than about t he central fac t t ha t the church col lege is a n insti tut ion devoted
to teaching young people of a ce rta in age group ce rta in types of curriculum
material a t the expense of chu rc h con tri butors . Most of the quite edifying
things sa id in many of t hese standa rd wo rks a re not relevan t to whether the
church should con tin ue to collec t mone y fo r dormito ri es and libraries . }
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B. The Loss of Chu rchly Cha racter
Much commentary has been devoted to the phenomenon of "secu larization 11
by which many colleges with an initia l ecclesiasti cal commitm t have
moved gradually to a "gene ral Ame ri can" ori e nta tion , with spec1 'ic
denom ina tional nor theological commi mento 1
I would submit t hat it is no t as clearly out of order as some seem to
assume when , with t he merging of vo lunta ri ly sponso red higher education
and socially sponsored mass education 1 t he churchl y character of t he
institution d iminishes. in t he wlthe 11ing away of exp Ii c it re igious
identification , the colleges simply reflected t he trend in American society
at large , in which , coupled with a steady increase in chu rch membership,
the churchly mean ingfulness of tha t members hip has progressively dimin-ishedo
If we a re to express regret 8 it shou ld be for t his broader soc i o~
phenomenon and not with t he covert suggestion tha t perhaps t he colleges
were responsible fo r it . If on t he othe r hand we recognize t hat the
aut hori ty of the churches in t hat earl ie r age was more a reflection of t he
prestige of establi shed rel igion in t he European heri tage t han of t he actual
conve rted convi c tion of t he Ameri can popula ti on 1 then we might not be so
sure t hat t he witheri ng away of t his decepti ve c hurchl y aut hori ty was
clearl y a se tback o The churches were t he fo unders of colleges not because
of any deep theologi cal dri ve but because the churches were t he only
clearl y organi zed structures of vol untary social initiative in the frontier
societyo They were not onl y c hurch-related but denom inati on- related not
because any one denomination had a bette r theo logical reason fo r educat ing
than anot her1 nor because each denomina ion had a disti nct educati onal
message , but si mply because t he pl ural istic denominational pattern is t he
pattern of voluntary social relati ons hips; it is , in effect, our kind of
11 establ ishment 11 • Those of us who are not specifi cal ly committed to the
pattern of "established religion " sho uld t·he refore not necessa rily feel that
t he situa tion has fundamentall y changed with t he weaken ing of t hat type
of offi cial reli gious expression in t he semi-publ ic insti utions which
colleges always have been.
C. The Sectarian Schoo I
The awareness / made q i te c I ear by Norman Kraus 0 paper / that t he
pl ural istic denom inational pattern was itsel f t he re li gious establ ishment
of the pioneer age , and t hat t herefore the cl assical college pattern was
not 11 church 11 alone but al ready an inter-action of the church w ith the
larger soc ie ty, shou ld sha rpen ou r percept ion to distingu ish from the church
college not only the much more narrowl y defi ned Bible Institute , committed
only to the trai ning of c hurch worke rs, but al so a t hird type 1 which I should
like to designate as 60:'iSed a ri an 101 without meaning this adjective in a
pejorative sense. The Ira Mi Iler paper has I t hink made cl ear that t here
was abou t t he found ing of Mennonite C lieges and t he reorganizati on of
Goshen College an element o~ enom1 a tional identity and defense which
was not typical of t he classical churc h col lege patte rn 0 There can be in
such an effort of a smal I minority group to ma inta in its identity through an
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educational program something defensive and anti-c ultural ; but this is
by no means automatically the case. The degree of separateness and
particular identity of a denom ina ti on is not necessa rily an indication
of its being closed to the larger soci ety or to general cultural values;
wi tness the abiding cultural creativity of Jesu it schools t hrough the
centuries. We shall have to study further whet her t he maintenance of
sectarian identity in our society is e ither a possible or a desirable
function of a church college; my onl y point a t present is that we should
be aware t hat this kind of function is somet hing quite disti nct from the
grand tradition of the church col lege in American history.
D. Integral Constituency Loyal ty
Wi t h the development of t he 11 secta ri an 11 pattern, it was to be expected
not onl y that the adm issions pol ic ies would tend to be tied rather closely
to t he denominational convictions , but t hat we would observe t he
development of two furt her assumpti ons; t hat every loyal member of t he
denomination should prefer t he denominational institution , and that
therefore t he institution is duty bound to find facil ities for all t he
denom ination us children .
It is only within the last five years t hat it has come clearly to the
attention of Mennonites t hat t his pair of assumpti ons is no longer realistic
for us; and if they are not realistic, t hen to be lim ited by them is in fact
clearly wrong, since it means in effect disavowing any pastoral or
educational responsibility for t hose who can go to non-church schools
wi thout fo rfeiting their chu rch membership.
The assumption t hat integral denomination loyal ty wou ld be the ideal. has
a double negative effect once sign ifi cant numbers of students are on non-denom
inati onal campuses. The students t hemselves feel t hat t hey are
beingaccusedofdisloyalty , and unfairly so, for not having chosen a
school which t hey were not sure t hey could afford and where t hey were
not sure t hey cou ld find courses meeti ng t heir need; the college on the
ot her hand feels rejected because it has identifi ed its reason'<for existence
with its claim to serve t he total membership of the denomination.
I submit that, whatever was the possi bi lity in the past , t he idea that a
denominational college can or should serve al l the educational needs of
its constituency is now Utopian . The assumption was of cou rse never
applied to any fields of gradua te study except, quite recently , to the
seminary . It has al ready been formall y given up in some o ther areas,
such as agricul ture and engineeri ng , which we adm it a small school cannot
do equally well. It would seem to follow tha t we should free ourselves
entirel y from the idea of a formal obl igati on to meet al I of a certain
category of study needs , recognizing that t he case for the college must be
made on some othe r basis than t his. When in spite of the exceptional
vigor and qual ity of Mennoni te educati onal leadership in the last two
generations , and in spite of t he greater t han average need of the con-stituency
to catch up in t he field of educational se rvi ces, fewer t han
- 5 -
half of our wage earners con t ri bute regu larly to church colleges and
nearly ha lf of our young peop le in co ll ege a re in non-denom inati onal
inst itutions , we must govern ou r a ctual insti tu ional services by a
ra ti ona le w hic h fi ts real ity ra t he r t ha n maki ng t he case fo r t hem on t he
axiom of a n iden t ity between denom ina tion a nd sc hool wh ich , if it eve r
fu ll y e xisted , is hardl y grow ing .
II. Issues Related to t he Stance of t he C hu rc h as a Missiona ry Minority
We have ba rel y begun to spell out t he imp licati ons fo r educati onal met hod of
t he Anabapti st vision of t he churc h. The ove rw he lming bulk of t hought and
prac ti ce in f' his realm ever since O ri gen has been dom ina'fed by t he assumpt ion
that t he educat ional process is a functi on of the tota l Christi an ized soc ie ty ,
bot h in being sponso red by socie ty a t la rge and in being responsible to meet
all t he needs of Chri stendom, Alt hough Bernard Ramm is a Bapti st, his survey
of histo ri cal fi gures in his The Christia n Co ll eg~ in The Twen ti e t h Century is
tota lly unc riti ca l wit h rega rd to t his "C hristendom 11 assumpti on of t he t hinkers
on whom he reports . O ve r aga inst t his histo ri c pre jud ice , t he awa reness t hat
t he chu rch is a mino rity and tha t its task is a missi onary one a re the ke ys to t he
defin iti on of a new pe rspective ,
A. The Stra tegy of the Missionary Minority is Pa rsi moni ous
We cannot do everyt hing , and should not assume t hat we should . Ou r
concern is t herefore not fo r complete ness o r fo r t he abi lity to cove r t he
gamut of possi ble good servi ces to soci e ty, but to se le c t t he most
necessa ry . We must rea lize t ha t t he re are many good things whi ch could
be done wit h c hu rc h resources which a re sti 11 not t he best us e to make of
t hem.
O ne of t he standa rds of dis cri minati on in pa rsomony wi II be a judgmen t
as to wha t ot he rs a re now capable of do in g . The point is not t ha t certa in
se rvices a re wor hy of Chri sti an co nce rn and others a re not, but t ha t
among those val id concerns we must se lect t hose which wi ll be left undone
if we do not hi ng about t hem . Ce rtai nl y this would not today be a ground
fo r insist ing on a church contri bu ion to hi gher educati on , a s it was in
a not her age .
A furt her standa rd fo r our pa rsimon ious disc ri mination will be t he ques tion ,
11 How much diffe rence does it make to be Christia n in t his rea lm ? 11 It has
ofte n been pointed out t hat t he vari ous inte ll e ctua l discipl ines va ry
great ly in the e xtent to w hic h re li gious or me tap hysica l comm itments color
t he treatment of t he mate ri al . In t he fi el d of physics, mat hemati cs, or
log ic , t he re can ha rd ly be a id to be a n e normous differenc e between t he
viewpoints of Chri sti a ns hose of ot he r competent students; in hi story,
e t hics, o r soci a l work the same cou ld not be sa id . Em i l Brunne r has used
t he phra se , 11 law of cl ose ness of re la ti on " to identi fy t his phenomenon .
The c loser an issue is to t he ce nte r of ma n us wholene ss, the more vis ible t he
impingeme nt upon it of man us rel a ti onship to God ; the mo re t he trea tmen t
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of t hat mate ri al wi ll be disto rted by man us sel fishness and rebe llion , a nd
therefore t he greate r t he dista nce wi II be between t he Christian a nd t he
non- Christ ian . (We may have occasion to speak late r about whet her t his
means tha t t he discipl ines like physi cs a re 11 Chri sti an 11 or not; t he point
he re is simp ly t hat Chri sti ans would stand t·o lose t he least by learni ng
t heir physics a t t he hands of non-Christi a ns. )
Q uite obvious ly , one of dimensions of parsimony must be strict ly eco-nom
ic . We cannot pay fo r e ve rything we wou ld like f a nd increased
expend iture in one rea lm means proporti onate ly less resou rces fo r ot he r
dimensions of t he church us mission . But t he reason fo r suggesting t ha t
t he church would not need to be t he ma in teac he r of physi cs is not on ly
t hat t he cyclot ron is expensive; it is t hat t here is about t he teaching of
physics (or of mat hemati cs, whic h needs no cyclot ron) an obj ecti vity
w hich means we need to think twice before investi ng t he c hurch us
meager missio na ry resources in t his bra nc h of educa tio n .
B. The Missionary Church is not Gove rned by t he same Socio logica l Laws whic h
app ly to Closed Communiti es
It is not diffi c u lt to ana lyze socio logica lly t he patte rns of educati on and
prese rva tion of group identity in a non- missionary mino ri ty , suc h as
Mennon ites have been in t he past. Nor is it diffi c u lt to a na lyze socie ty
as a whole; both of t hese a re 1 a lthoug h in diffe re nt waysu closed units .
A missionary c hurc h howeve r is neithe r a closed e t hnic minori ty nor a tota l
socie ty , but ra t he r an open edge minority which fi nds i vita lity in t he
c rossi ng of t he border between itse lf a nd t he larger soci ety. In pointi ng out
t ha t t his phenomenon would ca l I for a comple t·e ly diffe rent se t of tools of
so cio logical anal ysis1 I mean to be speaki ng not only of socio logy a s a
sci ence 8 but more broad ly of t he a mateur socio logi ca l insight which is part
of an y modern man a nd which plays a large part in the way a n instituti on
understands itse lf.
The uniqueness of t he missiona ry situa ti on can be see n in t he fact t ha t t he
ma jo r leadership wit hin God us peop le , especially so a t e r cia l pe ri ods1 has
come not from perso ns who were fully a t home in t he cente r of t heir so cie ty
and t radition , but from ma rgina l pe rsons. Moses had t he education of a n
Egypfi a n pri nce; t he Apost le Sau l- Pa ul was befo re his conve rsion both a n
e xceptiona ll y representa ti ve Pha risee a nd a bene fi ciary of the best of t he
he llenist ic culture of t he J ew.sh D0 a s a ra; in fa t t e nHre missiona ry
expansion of t he New Testa rfie ocumen s5 was t he product not of Pal es- tinian J ewish Christians but of H"e l lenists, most of t hem not part of t he
fi rst c hurc h of Je rusa lem .
Obviously u t he covenant peop le run a risk in associati ng in t his open way
with socie ty a t large and in a c cepti ng leadership from persons who a re
t hemselves at home o n t he growing edge ra t he r than in t he bl oodstream of
t he he ri tage . But t his is a risk whic h t he churc h whk h be li e ves un t he
Ho ly Spiri t cannot afford not to run . It wo uld al so ha ve to be said of
re cent Mennonite histo ry t ha t !ts most creative fo rces have been t hose
borne by individua ls who u whi le by no means disa vowing t he i r own
Mennonite t raditions, found signifi cant new stimu lus in t he e ncounte r wit h
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the larger society, whether in non-denominational educational institutions
or on some other level. Is it not precisely the process of growth in the
face of challenge which is stimulated especially by study in a "foreign"
spiritual environment which produces t his vitality? Are we not then
cutting off one of the major sources of ou r needed renewal when we
a ttempt to "grow our own" leadershi p? And when we try to guard ou r
best youth against the publ ic university ?
C. Closely related to the above paragraph, and also to the earlier discussion of
the assumpti on of integral loyalty, is t he concept of education as basically
a function of the family , a responsibility of parents for their children. As
self-evident as the idea t hat education is a fam ily function seems when we
think of t he 3 R's, it by no means remains self-evident beyond t hat hypo-thetical
point which we refer to as 11 t he age of accountabil ity " , especially
if we go on to the levels of education which actually presuppose that t he
student is practically an adu lt in intellectual capacity and mental inde-pendence
.
In American society this assumption has been subject to cha llenge from two
sides; from that of democ rati c ideology, according to which there is a common
core of nati onal , moral and intellectual consensus which no group pa rti-cularism
should keep a child from learning about. On the other hand, less
clearly a rti culated but intrinsically just as basic , would be the implicati on of
believers ' bc!lpti sm that each individual must make his own ul timate decision
regardless of the home in which ~e was placed by the accident of his birth.
But then a re there other opti ons t han the concent ra tion upon educating one 1s
own chi ldren? Certainly there have been in other cu ltures. It is possible to
concentrate on educating t hose who need it most; in past history Christi ans
have always been exceptionall y concerned for t hose whose class or racial
origin prevented t heir receiving even a minimum of educati on; but perhaps
more challenging in the welfare society to which we look forward would be
t he idea of concentra ti ng upon those who will benefit most from an education,
namely t he most capable students and those likely to constitute t he el ite of
the com ing generat ion. From t he ·Bret hren of t he Common Life du ring the
Middle Ages through British Quakerism in the last two centuri es , to t he
College Cevenol founded by Andre Trocme, nonconformist Christi ans have
demonstra ted themselves capable of providing an educati on whi ch parents
who do not share t hei r convicti ons were willi ng to purchase a t cost for the ir
chi ldren . Certainly if ou r concern is for mission ra the r than for self-preser-vation,
then t he suggestion t hat we might conc entra te on educati ng t he most
educable, those most likely to constitute a future el ite , and those who do not
come from our own church circ les, should have more to be said for it t han we
have thought of in the past. In addition to its obvious missionary challenge ,
such an approach would automati cally avoid t he objecti ons against "indoc-tri
nati on" which a ri se when a minority group teaches only its own progeny.
D. The Pioneer and the Parad igm
If we have once got away from the idea of meeti ng all the needs of a given
social group, even our own , and of measuring t he goals toward which we
extend our effort in function of the ir !1leedfulness and with a view to steward-ship
of ou r creati vity, then we sha ll fin d ourselves especially interested
in experimentation and in the development of novel met hods which
Christians should be dispropo rti onately able to cook up. The point would
be not to do everything bu t to show wha t can be done. Chri sti ans used
to ru n all the hospitals. Now that t he sta te knows t hat t he hospital is a
good t hing t he chu rch is ill-advised to concent rate on med ical research.
At one ti me t he need is to develop schools; a not her ti me it is mental
hospitals or overseas se rvice techni ques . Each time the larger society
gets t he point , Chri stians should move on instead of be ing jealous abou t
the ministries t hey have developed .
E. The Stabi lity of Adolescence
When the church college movemen t began in t he catecheti cal school of
Origen, as well as when it began o n t he American frontier , it was
terminal educati on. Even if t he level of instruction was not far beyond
that of a good modern high school, the students wou ld upon t he completion
of their studies be ready fo r professional responsibi Ii ti es.
We have spoken ea rlier about t he social change which comes abou t when
t his level of educati on is made accessible to half of t he popu lation instead
of to a small minority . Our point now is however t hat with t he educa tional
explosi on , the terminal educati on of persons getti ng ready for major social
leade rship takes place in the middle 20 1s, whereas the general college
educational experience has become a so rt of prolonged adolescence, wi t h
t he school needing to compete fo r a ttenti on wit h courts hip and sports. O r
in those cases where the pers pective of a job has al ready prescribed a total
curriculum or where t he studen t is al ready making his living , his educati on
is again cramped by t hat fa ct to t he point that it can have no "liberal 11
dimension.
El ton Trueblood has suggested t hat t here is no good reason fo r t he churches
to con tinue to concentra te on the segment of our population whi ch is
really t he least disposed to give itself deepl y to the ed ucati onal process.
If we are to look a t educati on once aga in with critical pa rsi mony, it might
be suggested t hat t here are two o ther level s on which much more could
rather be done .
In the one directi on , a strong case could be made fo r more church- related
education on those age levels where t he young person is sti ll quite normally
wi thi n t he famil y con text , namely grade sc hool and junior high. Here t he
a rgumen t fo r educati on as a fami ly responsi bi lity is t he most app ropri a te ,
as is t he possibility of reaching al I of t he chil dren of a fam i ly as against
being lim ited to those who go on to co llege .
Bu t Elton Trueblood 's concern was ra t he r fo r the older age groups , whose
greater experien ce in practical affai rs wo ul d give t hem a be tte r basis for
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all kinds of general study, for which they would be likely to have more
leisure time, and in which they would be less misled by unfruitful
rebellion or by idle curiosity. Adult education has never been exciting
in North America; but is t his not precisely because we have downgraded
it in comparison to the college? No one can imagine what might
happen if we invested in adult education t he quali ty of teaching personnel
now being expended on adolescents; - to say nothing of t he economy in
physical plant and the closer integrati on of t he educative process with
the local congregation which this could enable a
Ill. Issues Arising out of the Nature of the Church
A. The Church is a Voluntary Community
The center of the Anabaptist objection to a close tie between church and
state was not alone the impropriety of using physical force to influence
beliefs. The deeper issue was rather t he nature of human community. The
church is a community defined by the commitment of those who voluntarily
join its fellowship. Now there is li ttle danger that on t he scale of
operations which is possible for Mennonites we should have in our colleges
anything like the State in its impersonal ity and violence. We do however 1
unless we should take quite novel measures toward iden tifying church
membership and the status of student, run a serious danger of confusion
between two bases of voluntary community; for the commitment to seek an
education in a church college is by no means the same thing as Christian
discipleship. As a matter of fact, we take few measures in the process of
registration to move toward such an identification, as Wheaton or Nyack
would.
Goshen College currently has approximately 5 per cent of its student body
testifying to no religious orientation , another 10 per cent recording some
non-Mennonite church preference, in many of which cases the commi tment
is not necessarily a very deep one , and no way of knowing how many of the
remairiir:ig 85 per cent of nominal Mennon ites are seriously ready to be
taken up on their commitment to responsible church membership. I am not
suggesting that these unconvinced persons should not be on the campus;
but that we should find structures of voluntary Christ ian fellowship which
recognize their freedom not to be functioning church members as .long as
they are not so committed, rather t han artifi cal ly reproducing by decree
free-church patterns of fellowship , worship and service . But when the
question arises, as it has on numerous of our campuses recently, what the
meaning of compulsory chapel can be in a church of t he Anabaptist
tradition, the threat which this question seems to evoke indicates that for
some it would seem to cut at the very reason for existence of a church
college. What then is t he reason for existence of a church college in the
Anabaptist tradition , if to accomplish its purposes it must make church
attendance compulsory?
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Bo The Church is a Community and Not a Hierarchy
In contrast to the patterns obta ining in European universitiesu where
the adm inist ration of t he university a rises dire ctly out of t he facu lty
and major offices are in fact often rota ted among senior facul ty
members., the Ameri can college and 1.miversnty adm inistra tion is a pro-fession
of its own , tending , for reasons whose histori cal appropriateness
one cannot challenge , to take most decisions either to the sponso ri ng
boards or to administrati ve staff, with on ly certain restri cted a reas of
responsibility being given either to the fa culty as a community or to t he
student·so This is t hus anot her point at which we fi nd patf'erns of
management in operati on which wou ld be more a t home (recogni zing
t he limita ti ons of any analogy) in the state church t han in the voluntary
community. The New Testament Church recogn izes very clearl y the
need for responsi ble leadership; but t hat leadership is expressed in t he
name of the community, subje ct to t·he control of t he community, by
numerous individuals cal led from the community a The way in which
I ines of a uthority in Ameri can church col !eges go back t hrough adm inis-tra
ti ve boards to denom ina tional hie ra rchies t hus gives reason fo r
questioning whether t hey eve r could be conceived of as t hemselves
tru ly "communitB es" of learningo
C. The Wall of Separa ti on
Reference to the Anabapti st concepHon of relati on of church and sta e
obl iges me to give some note to the Great Ameri can Debate 1 if onl y to
recognize how difficul t it· is to see one us way t hrough to c lear answers on
t he question of state support fo r schoo Is .
Any survey of t his discussion tri ps immedia te ly over a host of paradoxes.
Ameri can Free Churches of the Anabaptist tradition 8 whil e insisting upon
formal separation of church institutions and sta te agencies , unbl ushingly
use a ll ki nds of indirect su bsid iesu not only fo r public se rvic e institutions
like hospitals u but al so (in the fo rm of tax exemptions and deductions) fo r
worship and missionary a ctivities . At the same Hme denom ina tions whose
c redal tradition wou Id cal I fo r them to a ccept or even demand a close ti e
wit h t he sta te tend to be more independent . it' is t he Presbyteria ns who
sometimes reject hospital subsidies and t he conservative Reformed a nd
Luthe ran groups who run t heir own schoo ls at t heir own expense . Whereas
Chri stian colleges1 incl udi ng t hose of t he Hisf'o ri c Peace Churches, showed
no special wariness about adm iniste ri ng Defense Educati on Act loans, it was
the large public institutions which first raised questi ons abou t the loyal ty
oat h and the milita ry context of t he funds in question .
' A simi la r set of contradictions a rises when we compare not denom ina tions
but professions o O n 1·he personal level 8 it would oc cu r to very few to feel
tha t t he integrity of a Christian school teacher is se riously hampered -
a t least in peacetime - by his working for a sta te university or a township
high school; ye t medi cal doctors greet t he hint of a step in t he dire ction of
- 11 -
social support for medical costs as not simply unprofitable for them but
somehow a moral affront o Yet on t he institut ional level t he opposite is
the case. We have had no qualms abou t our Mission Board operating
hospi tals fo r local political un its nor abou t chu rch institu t ions receiving
government funds in large quantities fo r t he bui I ding of hospital foci lit ies;
yet when it comes to colleges we seem much more afraid of controls o
One of t he sou rces of the confusion is t he assumption t hat in America t he
Anabapti sts we re finally listened to, and t hat the separa tion of church
and sta te called for by t he Uni ted States Constituti on is somehow clearly
related to the demands made under the same heading by Free Churchmen
from Tertullian to Roger Williams . By no means is t his t he case o The
American Constitut ion provides fo r a pl uralism of religious agencies,
no one of which receives unique government recogni tion; but at t he same
time it continued to be assumed t hat t he nation would be both pious and
Protestant, and t hat t he practice of re li gion would be favo red in every
way which would be found possible without favo rit ism o This is a kind of
establ ishment o
It would be impertinent to t hink any brand new clari ty could be suggested
in a few lines . I t herefore suggest t hat we first a ugment t he confusion by
gett ing over the idea that a simple set of al ternat ives has been drawn
before us o We should not necessari ly assume t hat a church college has
t he same reasons for being separa te from t he state as a church congregation
or conference; for t he college , aft e r al l, does render a publ ic service and
enable an economy for t he sta te educati on budget; yet we have had no
qualms about tax deducti ons and exemptions fo r ou r congregati ons o
If our concern in thi s matte r is for spi ritual independence , it should
certainly not be assumed t hat a college dependent upon large amounts of
funds cont ributed from nongovernmental sourrces wi ll be spiri tually more
free o For all t he major priva te sources of mone y a re t hemselves political
and ideological fo rces in the kind of soci e ty we have o Since in fac t t his
money is his own , t he Ameri can capita list donor is more likely to a ttach
stri ngs to its expendi ture than if he were a pub lic functi onary dispensing
t he resou rces of t he who le community . The experience of universities in
many ot her parts of t he worl d , which ha ve been able to continue as havens
of intellectua l and even political independence e ven wit hin regimented
societ ies, wou ld indicat e tha t it is not impossible to a void over-control if
t he government funds re ceived by a school can be institutional ized and
t he reby freed from t he arbitra riness of passing pol it ical pressures .
Without having proposed an a rgume nta ti on to ma ke t his conclusion
inevi table , may I suggest tha t if a church-re la ted college is servi ng a
total soc ie ty according to t he ground rul es of open society , t hen the
services rendered in t hat institution have as muc h ri ght to be paid fo r
accord ing to t he c urrent pri ces in t ha t market as do t he equa lly honest
products of our farmers, who notori ous ly have not refused market prices
simply because the ma rket was federa ll y man ipulated . If on t he ot her
hand we are to make an inc reasi ng case for t he inst itu tion as an arm of
- 12 =
the church servi ng pri ma ri ly the churc h by foc usi ng primari ly t he issues
of fa it h and producing pri ma ri ly c hurch servan ts, t hen it would not onl y
be a concern fo r sp iri tual a utonom y but in fa ct for si mple honesty which
should lead us to ra ise questi ons about some of t he ind irec t suppo rt we
a re al ready rece iving , to say nothing of new types of grants.
IV, Issues Ari sing out of a concern fo r Rad ical Disci pleship
I t shou Id not be necessa ry to spe II out a t grea t I engt h t he nature of t he
tradit ional Mennoni te concern for radi cal ly se ri ous obedi ence, even , if need
be, at t he cost of fi nd ing onesel f unable to fu lfill certa in "pol ice" fun ctions
which soc ie ty cannot do without. We have applied t his not onl y to mil ita ry
fu ncti ons, bu t by and large to t he use of t he courts and to the legal profession
as wel l, As we see the c hurc h moving far beyond the face- to- face comm unity ,
we need to ask whet her the re mig ht not be dimens ions of t his instituti onal
real ity which make t he en tire underta king a n unwise spiritual ri sk,
This would no t mean to say tha t t he use of powe rfu l ins ti tuti ons would auto-ma
ti cal ly be impossi ble fo r Chri sti ans - a sort of Fra nci sca n refl ex - t he con-cern
is aga in a pastoral and a pa rs imon ious one , asking w he the r t he pa rtic u lar
ris ks a re justifi ed compa red to othe r perhaps le ss pe ril ous and mo re fruitful
unde rta kings ,
A, Pe rsonal ity Versus Community
The cen tral i zation of adm inistra ti ve disc re tio n in one ind ivi dual or a
small c ircle , who wit h the ve ry best of inten ti ons cannot always consu lt
e ve ryone concerned in a de cis ion , has a lready been iden t ifi ed above
as one of the pitfall s.
B. The Tyra nny of Curri cul um
Once t he deci sion has been made to offe r a ce rta in gam ut of courses,
a col lege admonistra ti on has comm itted itse lf to a mechan ism which it
hencefort h wi ll be extremel y diffi cu lt to resist. Staff wi ll need to be
employed to teach t he courses w hic h have been offered . These staff
pe rsons wi 11 be hi red on t he basis of the ir competence , and t heir
capaci ty to inte rest stude nts . Certa inly the re wi ll be great concern
fo r t heir also be ing comm itted Christi ans a nd in fa ct Mennonites but if
t he pressure is great t his may not a lways be possible. If by "comm itted
C hri sti ans " we shoul d mean t hat a ve rage level of "benevolence towa rd
t he rel igious" whic h passes fo r Protestant ism in Ame ri ca , o r t he passive
conformity to patte rns of nonconfo rmity whic h passes fo r Mennon iti sm,
t he di ffi cu lty wou ld not be too great. But if we sa y we are devoted to
t he recovery of t he Anabaptist vision a nd t he renewa l of d isci pleship
in our day , t he chances tha t persons fit ti ng o ur t ea ching needs wi ll
at t he same ti me share our t heology are a ctuall y rat he r slim8 a nd grow
slimme r as t he institu ti on grows.
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In. anot her way as well, t he c urri cul um0s mechanism d i lutes our
witness. The need to provide a gamut of offerings corresponding to
student needs means tha t a large personnel effort wi ll be invested
into teaching courses in which the teac her ss being Christian makes
I ittle diffe rence fo r t he subject matte r. By no means do I mean to
say t hat a Christ ian cannot be a competen t and obje ctive biologist
and st ill be a disci ple . Nor do I mean to say that a Christ ian
teaching biology wi 11 not leave a witness wi t h his students in spite
of t he fact t hat t he course mate ri al itsel f ra ises few moral issues. My ~
point is tha t if we have a person whose gifts a re such that whi le
teaching biology he can be a witness , it is a shame to have urged
him to enter that field because we need someone in the department
rat her than having him, with his gifts , in a place where the
difference his faith makes wou ld be more immedia t e ly e vident.
C. The Adm inistra ti on of any Instituti on is a n Exercise o f Power
The clarity with which Anabapti sts re jected the physical sword has
hidden from some of us an awareness of the 11 sword-l ikeness 11 of
certa in other kinds of social leadership, especially such as have to
do wi t h t he al location of money v with hiri ng and firi ng , and with
who is and who is not c~51s u l ted on a given decision. The heighten ing
of these tempta tions do'riot make it 2..Rrio d impossible to be meek and
nonresistant in a position of responsi bi lity; but t he y heighten the
pressures on certa in persons beyond t he points which most mortals a re
able to resist. Some ot he r Christian groups0 notabl y t he Q uakers,
have found pec ulia rly church=like patterns of administ ra ti on to
compensate fo r this d iffi culty; Mennonites have t hus fa r not done so.
We have demonstra ted littl e c reati vity in finding brot herl y checks
and balances to control t he powers given to certa in bre thren; nor
have we demonstrated t hat spi ritua l independence of the affl uent
which is en jo ined by t he Epist le of J ames, Chapte r 2 .
D. The Problem of lntegdty
One of t he subt le temptations in t he e thical realm a rises simply out
of the size which demands a division of labor. Eve ry inst itut ion
(like every person) has a 11 phi losophy 11 or set of ob(ectives which
govern its pol icy decisions , a se t of ob je ctives w hich serve fo r
eval ua ti on of its past performance v a nd a set of objectives to inte r-pret
itself to others. An individual onl y has integrity if the standards
used in al I t hese points a re t he same and if he is a ctuall y governed by
and willi ng to be judged by what he tells people he is up to. When in
an institution t he making of general pol icy ls located wit h t he Board ,
t he doing of the teachnng is delegated to t he fac ulty, and t he promo-ti
on to t he publ ic is t he responsibi lity of t he 11 relati ons 11 and the
adm issions offi ces, t here is a buil t~i n tendency toward unintenti onal
dupl ici ty . I have noticed in Mennonite colleges that our promotion
- 14 ~,
offices can say things wit h great convictno n w hich adm inistra tors
a re somewhat less sure of and fa c lty membe rs sti II lesso This woul d
be no speci a l prob lem fo r Christi ans of those trad itions w hich have
good theo logical explanations fo r certa in amou nt of comprom ise in
good causeso it means somet hing quite dHfe re nt wnt hin a trad ition
in which t he transparent integ rity of yes mean ing y es a nd no mean ing
no has been a n a rti cle of fa it ho
Vo The Autonomy of t he Secu la r
Every body of knowledge 6 and t he refore e ve ry academ ic d isci pl ine u has its
own set of trut h and val ue cla imso Since each of t hese d isci pl in es has
grown out of a histo ry in which a t one Hme al I of trut h was t hought to be a
part of "Ch risti an dvi lizaHon" a nd sinc e each disci p line now operates with
its own subjec t ma te r and outsi de t he bounds of t he rel igious comm unity ,
it is obvio us t hat some of the trut h a nd va lue cla ims of t he se ve ra l academ ic
d isci plines wi ll "reac h o ve r" into the rea lm of Christi an con victi ons . This
is the prob lem which has been referred to by means of the slogan , 11 J e rusalem
o r Athens ? "
A o The A tonom y of "Athe ns"
it goes wit hout sa yi ng t ha t one of the possi bl e sol uti ons to t his prob lem
is to a ffi rm t ha t each rea lm of intel !ectual and crea ti ve e ndeavo r is
fund a menta lly a utonomous 0 fin ding in its own su b ject matte r a standard
of twt h whic h is all t hat shoul d gui de i L Some of t his conc e rn comes
from unpleasa nt experiences w it h a utho rH a ri a n defenders of t he fa Hh
whose convict ion seemed to lead t hem into d isregard fo r t he fads o r
fo r t he responsibi lity of t he ir co lleagues o Anothe r source of thi s con =
cern fo r autonomy has been t he necessity for t he gra dua te student 6
whe t he r ar ist or sci e ntist', to accept t he va lue system of t he community
in which he a cqui res his experti se if h1s own competen ce is to rece ive
re cogniti on o Sti 11 anot her basis is t he snmple encounte r wit h t he
ob je ctivity a nd dign ity of each of t he several realms of creativity and
i nvesti ga ti on o
it is t hus not surprisi ng t hat the ma on streams of church history ha ve
fo und ways to a ffi rm a re lati ve a utonom y fo r t he va rfous e lements of
"secu la r " civil izati on, a nd t ha t some ha ve gone fa rt he r to a ffirm t hat
t his a utonom y is f ndamental 0 Someti mes it is a ffi rmed as a ma tter of
fa i h tha t recognizing t he a utonomy of t he a rts and t he sci ences wi ll
lead to no confl ict but ra t her to a happy synt hesis such as t·he Middle
Ages or t he person o f Cardinal Newman a re assumed to represen t o At
ot he r po ints 0 t he visi on is rathe r t hat· of a continuing fundamental
ten ion between deepl y diffe ri ng views of ~nJ t h 0 which howe ver must
bot h con ti nue to rec e ive our loya lty; t his wou ld be t he a titude of a
Reinhold N iebuhr o For sH 11 o the rs, t he re can be a cle ~Visi on of labor
su c h t ha t each val ue system is maste r in it's own fi e ld Q a nCI each, in-cl
uding Christia n comm itmen t 1 shoul d sta y in its ow n area and make
no broader cl a imso
~ 15 .~
Each of t hese proposed sol utions is open to serious challenge o That
which claims a utonomy for each rea lm on t he basis of a doct ri ne of
creation 6 which one tends to fi nd in bot h Luthe ran a nd Cal vinistic
circles, invol ves a misunderstanding of t he Biblical doctri ne of c reation
as in no way standing over aga inst redemption and espe ci al ly as
certa inl y giving to t he creature no autonomy over against t he divi ne wi 11 o
The "continui ng tension 11 sol ution u a lthough apparent ly quite honest and
open to t he facts, is in real ity not full y responsi ble. For a lt hough t ension
can be a cont inui ng psychic sta te 6 in t he realm of scholarly and a rtistic
productivity somet hing is sti ll going to be produced and in each case the
te nsion wi II have been reso lved by a comm itmen t in a given case to one
sideorto t he ot her o r to a mixture in certa in proporti ons9 whi ch is t hen
no longer an active tension but a settled resol uHono
Nor is t he idea of "each in his own camp" a sol ution . It might suffice
if our only need were to keep the physi cists out of t he music stud io and
t he poets out of the laboratory. Eve n here it would not be easy . But
t he d isci pl ines of history and psyc ho logy 9 to say nothing of theology
a nd phi losophyu have prec isel y as the ir specific bai liwick the enti re
breadth of human experi ence; any a ttempt to affi rm tha t t he re a re
specific realms in whic h t hey must not go , al t hough affirming t he
integrity of t hose ot he r realms, denie t he integrity of history o r
theology . Since it is t he t heological issue w hich con cerns us now , we
must note t hat a ny of t hese ways of affl 1rming t he a utonomy of a given
d isci pline , by claiming to know in adva nce t hat t he Chri st ian fa ith
e ither cannot o r must not have anything to say in t hat area which w0u ld
d iffe r from the convi ctions of the speci a Ustsi constitutes a se rious
cha I lenge to t he Bibl ica l and Anabaptist confession of t he Lordship of
Christ. How is a utonomy d iffe rent from rebel lion? If a given realm
is not subject to t he Lordship of Chd st 9 what a re we doing t here? This
kind of a rgument surprises us by beginning with the claim t hat al I of
life shou ld be t he Christians 0 conce m 0 b1.1Jt concl ud ing t hat t he onl y
honest way to be concerned wHh it as so !·o respect t he independence
of e ve ry a rea t hat his faith is not releva nt to it.
B. Sol uti ons whk h deny t he Problem
It is no surpri se t ha t t here is a read ion .r o ve r agafins!· t his autonomy
claim, which hopes by virtue of fo rmal sta tements of fa ith to be able
to deny t hat t he problem ls t he re o Behind such slogans as 11 t1rut h is
one" or "discipleship is a ll of life" or 11 no part of God 0s worl d can be
closed to His children 11 5 it is hoped t hat with a sufficient ly pious or
suffici entl y technical prior ori enta tion t he problems can be brushed
awayo Al l of t hese slogans a re formal ly trueo The diffi cu lty is t hat
they a re al so without clear meaning 9 fo r t hey do not give cl ea r
inst ructions as to what is now to happen w hen t here is an .2PP.arent
confl icto I grant t hat t he parti sans of t his ,,unity " vision may wel l
hold tha t t he confli ct is onl y apparent; but how now do t hey reso lve
it ? Some could without denyi ng a ny of t he above slogans take t he
most "secularist " line current ly being advoca ted by a number of best-sell
ing t heologians8 according to whom it is precisel y t his vision of
- 16 ~
unity whkh wi ll permit us to drop all of t he pious t rappings of earl ie r
Christian cu lture without rea lly losing a nything o On t he ot her hand ,
t he same vision of unit y can lead to t he Chrustian synt heses of
Abraham Kuyper or medie val cat ho lkism in w hich it was assumed t ha t
al I t he freedom t he a rts and sciences could reasonabl y want would be
wit hin t he limits of a permanent ly fixed c reed o
Beyond its lack of pre cise operational meaning 8 t he "trut h is one "
t heme does not speak to t he issue of a Christia n co llege o That
"Christia ns may wel I go into any rea lm 11 does not yet tel I us what t hey
shou ld do t hereo Tha t t he re is somet hing constructi ve fo r t hem to do
in every realm , e ven if gua ranteed - and we have not been too sure of
t hat about some rea lms - does not ye t demonstra te tha t what shou Id be
done t here is to operate an inst ructiona l pirogram for yo ut h between
17 and 23 a t church expense o Berna rd Ramm 0s book 8 al t hough pro-vi
ding a helpful his ori cal survey of what Christi a n educators have
t hought about t heir sub ject matte r 1 is of no help with t he descri ption
of t he proper institutional base for t he Christi an teache r o It does not
expla in why he shou ld not g like Melanc ht hon or Moberly ! teach in a
Sta te Unive rsity o
C o Lim ited Autonomy
Nor is Bernard Ramm clear on t he la rger questio n we a re now discussing .
At times one would ha ve t he impression t ha t he asc d bes some indepen-dent
val ue to t he se ve ra l "secula r " d isci plines. Yet a t t he same time
t hat he reports on Augusti ne 0s great freedom in incorpora ti ng Roman
rheto ri cal equipment into the educa tion of pri ests8 he sa ys t hat t hese
pagan disc ipl ines need to be 11 conve rted 11 • Simil a rly in the discussions
of Melanchthon a nd Kuyper 1 the idea f' hat a l I secu la r d isc ipli nes may
be used and t hat t he y must be c ritical !y sifted fo a void a l I e rror run
side by si de without a ny clear guidance as to wha t to do in cases of
confli ct .
The histo rical surve y by Norman Kraus made it cl ear t hat t his is one
fu ndamenta l issue fac ing t he churc h co ll ege , a nd whi ch libe ral a rts
col leges in t he past centuri es have fai led to resol ve . What is t he t rut h
va lu e of the course content in which t he disci plone Hse lf comes forwa rd
wit h truth c la ims on su bj eds whe re Chd stians t hought they had ot he r
ki nds of reasons for holding to othe r ideas ? When t he a rtist,. c la iming
t ha t his onl y responsibi lity is to portray "what he sees! 11 produces a
picture whi ch Chri stia ns fee l offends eit her t he ir taste or t heir moral s,
is t he answer t hat he does not belong in t he chUJrch ? O r t hat he should
be left to fo l low t he dicta tes of his own "gift ? 11 Whe n t he bio logist
reports t hat whate ve r t he a ctua l course of events in dostant ti me might
have been ! he and his co ll eagues can on ly communica te meani ngfu lly
about t he inte r-re la tedness of organk life by positi ng an e volutionary
hypothesis! is he to be told t hat he may "bel ie ve in e vol ution" onl y so
fa r as he affirms it to ha ve been a 1'ool of t heistic c reation? O r t hat
- 17 -
he may use it as a hypothesis but not as a truth ? O r tha t whatever
he bel ie ves in t he fi eld of biology has nothing to do with fa ith ? And
if the latte r path should be taken, will we grant to t he psychia tri st
fo r whom moral ity is simply a projection of unhappy c hi Id hood experi-ences
, o r to t he behaviorist, fo r w hom all rel igious experi ences can be
reduced to chemical reactions in brain cell s, the same green light ? It
is very easy to say t hat ou r t eaching of e ve ry subfe cf. is penetra t ed by
Christian fa ith. As long as t his means that we open ou r classes with
prayer, o r tha t we grate fully receive t he mate rial of ou r discipline as
part of a gift to us from a fri endl y God , t hi s poses no problem for
cou rse materi al. But the Christia n t ru th claim is really onl y meaning-ful
if it does pose problems on t he levels of t ruth and value; problems
to which nei the r systemati c subo rdina ti on nor fundamental a utonomy
can provide a sa ti sfying Christi a n answer .
VI • The Superiority of Liberal Arts
A . The Utility of t he Non- Ut ilita ri an
The a uthor of a study of "Piety and Inte llect a t Am herst" reports tha t
when with t he relaxation of secta ria n loyal ty the re developed on the
campus a conflict between t he advo ca tes of 11 pie ty 11 a nd t he fi'i'ends of
11 I earning 1 ~ t he best way fo und to avoid open conflict was to concentrate
on 11 cha ra cte r11 , on which t he classicists and t he devo ut can agree. This
remark is a pointer toward a much more genera l phenomenon . In the
case of embarrassment a ri sing from t he absence of a cl ea rer ra tionale for
the educa t ional process as it is now being carri ed on, whe the r this
embarrassm ent re la t es to t he grow ing a utonomy of t he secu lar just
referred to , o r derives from some of t he broader soci ological cha I lenges
now fac ing the c hurch sc hool , resort is oft e n had to the superior mora l
va lLre of "general education " or the "l iberal arts".
Many contemporary discussions of t he mean ing of li beral arts read into
this phra se numerous most ed ifyi ng descript ions of what it means t hat t he
Christia n is "truly free" or how the study of classica l literature 11 liberates 11
one . Onl y a few ha ve the honesty to adm it tha t the histo ri c deriva ti on
of the term is a qu ite different one. The "l iberal arts " were ori ginally
t hose a rts in whic h t he leisure class of society cou ld afford to indul ge .
Thei r first val ue was tha t the y provi ded the kind of Non- Uti litarian
occupati on with whic h it was seeml y for persons of the ir class to be
busied . A second va lue was t hat t hey cou ld thus a ctual l:y preserve and
propagate a classical human isti c heritage fo r which the re was a t t he t ime
not much other use. Furt her, the st ructure of the ir so c iety being what
it was , this tra ini ng was fo r t hem uti lita ri an in tha t it prepared t hem to
con ti nue to be the kind of so cia l e lite which t he ir parents were .
Now that many ot her ki nds of professions have found ways to make
t hemselves more e ffi c ient throug h t he fo rmal school ing of fu ture pro-fess
iona ls, upper-class reflexes ha ve reacted against "me re tra ining"
- 18 -
as being somet hing less t han education . Especially when t his "t rain ing"
is in fi'.eldswhich are immediat el y useful, such as die te ti cs or accounti ng ,
many would a rgue t hat t his should not be considered as educati on a t all.
Inte restingly , the c riti cs of "mere tra ining" , al t hough in agreement a t
t his point, soon diverge ra t her radical ly . On t he one hand t here a re
t hose who would abandon die te ti cs and accounti ng in favor of t he pure
sciences because of their greate r ul ti mate usefulness; seek ing uti lity
after all, but on a higher level . O t hers would a t t he same ti me make
a sti ll st ronger case fo r sciences which a re truly "pure" in t hat they are
not justified by t heir contri buti on to technology , c lassical languages
which simply teach one to think stra ight about his words , and of course
t he a rts, whose claim to highe r cultural val ue is t ha t they are not good
for anyt hing e lse.
This general bourgeois cul tural refl ex t·akes on a new dimension when
it is argued t hat it is specifi cally Christians who fo r "rel igious" or
"characte r bu i lding 11 reasons should be concerned especially fo r t he
liberal arts. For a surpri sing number of interpre te rs , t he case for a
Chri st ian college is identical wi t h t he case fo r a liberal arts college
(and usually wi t h t he case for a smal I college). Such t hings as
"perspecti ve" or "cul tural breadt h and dept h" a re assumed to be mo re
fa ithful reflections of rel igious concern t han me re ly learn ing to be use-ful
0
B. The Correcti ve of Disc ipleship
I submi t that t his glori fica tion of t he gra tuitousness of chara cte r
forma ti on is not only morall y questi onable but in fact not an accura te
descri ption of what t he Christian schools have been doing . The liberal
a rts curri cul um, in t he first place , was generall y establ ished because
of its usefulness in preparing persons for the Christi an ministry and t he
ot her professions. Christi an col leges ha ve always placed strong emphasis
on t he prepara tion of worke rs fo r t he se rvice professions , and have
justi fiab ly pointed to t he disproportionate ly large number of nurses,
doctors, teachers, chu rch servants, a nd soci a l workers whom t hey have
prepared .
But even if t here had been a history of C hristi an comm itment to purely
useless liberal a rts-1.- we would need from t he Anabapti st perspective to
challenge it seri ously. We shou ld challenge t he soci al situa tion in which
t here was in t he first place a leisure class . We should challenge t he
assumption t ha t a dri fti ng adolescen t has more c hara cte r t han someone
who has al ready set his si ghts on a way to be usefu l to his bre t hren and
neighbors . We shoul d recognize t hat e ven wit hin a liberal a rts cu rri cu lum
there need to be choices about t he re la t ive usefu lness of diffe rent types
of studies, to which process of disc riminati on t he glorifi ca ti on of t he
Non- Uti lita ri an makes no contri buti on. We would further suggest t hat
it is not onl y morally but also pedagogicall y preferable to bui ld "character"
around prepara ti on for a clearly defi ned soci al ta sk than fo r its own sake.
- 19 -
C. The Abiding Necessity of Liberal Arts
Once we have freed t he Ii bera I a ll'ts from t he handicap of t he case
some have been attempting to make fo r t hem ! we can see more
clearly to defl ne t he ir real uti I Ha ri an necessity . Some would sa y t hat
gene ral educat ion is prepa ration fo r "ci ti zenship" . If t his means
preparati on fo r effe ctive pa rtici pation in democratn c se lf-gove rnment !
the re might be some questi on about its adequacy as a moti va tion. If
however we were to take the te rm in t he broader sense of a responsi ble
contri bution to t he ,£ivitas1 i. e . a competent contri bution to social
u;seful ness and leadershipu t hen we could see quite clearly what eac h
of t he e lemen ts of general educatio n can add ! a nd we coul d judge t his
contri bution a nd re- e va luate our curri cu lum witt'h a vision toward
whet he r we a re a ctua ll y producing persons of this most useful type .
Instead of saying t ha t gene ral educatoon has no spedfl c professiona l
useful ness, we would ask fo r whkh ca llings Hus professfo na lly
necessa ry .
I am not ready to guess wha t thi s parti a l shift of defi nition would do
to our li beral a rts curri culum. My suspid on is t ha t it mig ht move t he
general educaf'ion courses from the leve l of undergradua te requirements
fo r persons who a re obl iged to dilute t he i r job t raini ng with a study of
civil ization and musk appreciatUon which t'he y sha l I hasten to forget u
to t he sta tus of a n u pper~ l e ve l co nce nl'ra tion on t he humaniti es as an
a rena of moral conf!Uct a nd testimony; but ~hij5 us on ly a guess.
it shoul d be sa id with regard to liberal a rts u a s Ht was earl ie r in
connecti on with t he unity of tl!'uth, t hat t he case fo r t his kind of
educa tion is not identi cal wit h t he need that today it should be offe red
by a church institution . In fact u t he re is somet hing about t he a utonomy
of t he contempora ry cu ltu ral mate ri a ls which one must study in t his
field, whic h it is practi cal ly impossoble to present huthfo lly in a church
context .
VII. The Need for a n Appropri a te Phi losophy of Educatfon
A. The Synoptic Approach
Most of t he effo rt ~'O give to the educat ional process an undergirding
a nd t heo ret'i ca l understanding has proceeded by t he synoptll c pat h.
The effo rt has been to begin wit'h as broad a vi ew as possi b le of the
world a t large and to place in H eve ry realm of human effo rt and thereby
e ve ry realm of educati on. This tends f'o assume t he possi bi lity of view ing
t he universe as a cohe rent unity which it us possible to get onto focus ,
and a great va riety of iden Hfi able mate ri als which H is possible to
classify . J ust recent ly at Goshen Co l !ege we heard a recognized expert
in t he fi e ld of phi losophy of educatUon demonstrate wha t he conceives
as his ta sk as a phi losophe r to be. He did not antend to te ll us what to
teach and not what not to teachu a nd he left to one side t he entire fi e ld
of "applied" learning 9 to concentra te on classify ing t he several areas
of general education w it hin a chart 8 o rderi ng t hem in terms of varying
degrees of "intension" and "extension" o In some of t he a reas on t he
chart 11fac ts 11 a re being dea lt wUth8 and it was not apparent t hat t he
Christian would have toward t hese facts any fu ndamen tall y diffe ren t
a ttitude from the consci enti ous and inte ll igent non- Christi ano On
other levels 5 val ue was be ing dea lt with0 and here rel igion was a t
home o From t his perspective t hen t heology and et hics wi 11 look back
o ver the realm of fact and be inte rested in it as part of a coherent
world vi ew o The concern in setti ng up t he synopsis was t hus not fo r
disc rimination between what be longs and w ha t does not belong i n a
C hristian educational process 5 but fo r 11 topology 11 which can get every
item on t he map and el ucidate t he re lat edness of t he various areas o
This is not to challenge e i ther t he he lpfo lness or t he accuracy of t he
sy noptic and desc ri ptive approach to some ki nds of problemso Yet t he
ve ry effort to relate Christian fa Hh to such a realm by transmuti ng it
into a "world view" or val ue system denature s H o Chri sHan disciple-ship
is not a world voew o r a va luie system capable of objectivel y
englobi ng everything and putti ng each item i n its place o Christian
fa ith is rather a stance within histo ry capable of te stifyi ng to a ny
worl d a nd the refore to any world view , but se tt li ng on none of t he
a va il able opti onsj judging them all for t heir pd de 1 which ls reflected
pre cise ly in the ir claim to be able to provide a synopti c vision u and
offering to all the gra c e of regeneration whnch means death to sel f~
concern and a sl oughnng off of much t hat seemed val ua ble 0
Bo A Kerygmati c Philosophy of Edu ca ti on
What is said above is not meant to suggest t hat we cou ld somehow
excise the realm of 11 phi losophy of education" 0 The need is rat her to
develop in t his fi eld as in e ve ry o the r an understanding of what we a re
doi ng whkh is more radicall y fa Hhfol to t he natu re of t he gospel and
less sub ject to onto logical Consta nHnaa n tempta Honso
I am here suggesti ng t hat 11 procl a mati on 11 woul d be one ke y to t he
inte rpre ta tion of wha t we shou ld be doing in education 0 and espec iall y
in t he fi eld of "gene ral education" 0 By "proclamaHon u is not meant
pri marily or excl usively t he appeal to indi vid uia ls to make an initial
fa ith comm itment . Very seldom if e ver coul d such an appeal be
responsib ly structured ur1to t he edu;calfo nal pmcess without do ing
violence to some element of l hat· processo Wha t we can a nd should do u
however 1 is to proclaim to the world a t large t hat t he Lordship of Christ
ext·ends 1·0 t he meaning of hustory 0 to the d ugnity but a lso to the
brokenness of human beauty u f·o t he obie cti vHy a nd a lso tto the self-cent
·e red disto rtions of the human search fo r 11trut h11 0 The re would be
proclamaHon in t he fact that we would no t on ly claom to be free of
arHfi c ial rest ra ints and abl e to move Hnto the severa l realms of human
- 21 -
creativi ty, but much more deeply t hat we would claim to have the
tools of moral and humane discri mination to know which of the efforts
in each of these realms is t rul y free , t ruly human , tru ly useable in t he
kingdom cause. To proclaim the iudgment of all human efforts in
Christ and t heir fulfillment in Him is a far diffe rent message from t he
under- handed glorifi cation of creaturel y a utonomy which some mean
when t hey read , "I am t he truth " u or "t he truth shall make you free" .
C. A Philosophy of Servant hood
Christians , and especially Mennonites u should have less of a guil ty
conscience t han some of us have seemed to have in recen t years about
t he 11 uti litarian 11 d imension of education. Since we cannot meet all
needs of al I people, let us d isc ipl ine oursel ves more severel y to meet
with real efficiency those needs for whic h no one else is prepared.
Let us verify our assumption t hat teaching and nu rsing and pastoral
leadership call for spiri tual o ri entation and moti vati on whi ch no other
training insti tution can pro vi de; if t hes can be demonstrated (a nd I am
not saying whether I t hink it can) then let us have no apology fo r being
11 lopsided 11 in our choice of t he professions for which we t rain.
VIII. Conclusion
My assignment was not to have a concl usion . To set fort h t he clear t hesis t hat
the Chu rch College as it now exists is bad stewardship , reflects a defensive and
non-m issionary vision of t he church , denies the New-Testament-Anabaptist vision
of rad ical , nonresistant , flexible discipleship, and should therefore be aban-doned
, would be to shortcircuit the study process which we a re just beginning.
But fo r t he study to be seri ous it should be recognized t hat t his would be one
possible conclusion , and that t he logic leading in t his direction fi nds its
impetus not in a c riti cal observation of any one institution , but rather in t he
very way t he church colleges have been ma ki ng t heir own case.
I have intenti onall y kept out of t his discussion any a ttenti on to possible al terna-tive
patterns of higher educati on, such as ~· he Conrad G rebel Col lege approach ,
t he systemati c infiltration of university campuses ,, or a stronger focus on con-gregational
educati on. I have looked onl y at t he type of Chu rch College
represented by ou r three institutions and t heir history / identi fyi ng t he serious
questions which a rise ou t of t his very history as to t he adequacy of t he
explanations we have been giving oursel ves fo r t he last thirty years for t he
necessity of doing what we a re doing as we a re doing it . This does not mean
am pessim isti c about t he possibi lity of ot her and bette r reasons for doing some-thing
simi lar; but it has not been my task to suggest t hem .

A Syllabus of Issues Facing t he C hurc h College
Pre-Workshop Paper, Apri I, 1964
John H. Yoder
lntroducti on
understand my assignment in the present paper to be that of raising issues rather than
suggesting the i r resol ution o Now an issue is live only if a case can be made fo r more
t han one possible answer . My task can t herefore be more narrowly defined as demon-st
rati ng t hat t here actuall y are issues concern ing which it would be possible to arrive
a t different concl usions from t hose current ly susta ining t he church college o This will
mean I shall be taking t he role of 11devil 1s advocate" , giving more a ttention to the
less popu lar side of any given debate .
At some points it may be possi ble for me to ske tc h t he na ture of an issue without taking
sides a t al I; in other places the only way to make an issue come al ive may be to argue
for one possible sol ution o Even where suc h argument might represent my tentatively
settled conclusion (which will not always be t he case), t he purpose of t he a rgumen t is
to open and not to close conversation on t he issue o
One of the issues a t stake is t he very method of choosi ng which issues a re importan L
Many ana lyses of problems of higher education come out with just one or two issues
t hought to be fundamen tal to t he o t hers o Any such selection of only one or two pro-blems
t hought to be crucial wou ld prejudge t he e valuative process which we have just
ba rel y begun in preparation for next August 0s wo rkshop . I shal I t herefore a ttempt to
lay out a greater number of issues, classifi ed bu t not sifted , leavi ng it to t he study
process of t he larger communi ty to det e rmine whi c h a re t he most cha I lenging and pro-mising
o
O ne way to na rrow somewhat ou r task will be to label some issues which , al t hough
q uite impo rtant fo r t he Christian 's total int el lect ual experi ence , do not necessaril y
correlate with t he institution of t he c hu rch college . Oft en in t he books I have been
read ing one finds discussions of the Christian 's reason for wanti ng to "pursue t he t ru t h 11 ,
as if "t he pursuit of trut h" were t he best desc ri pti on of the undergraduate educational
process; certa inly a misunderstanding of what the college teacher does with most of his
t ime o Simi larl y, discussions of t he relationship between teaching and research, or of
t he t heo logical assumpti ons which perm it t he Christi an to be a scholar or a scientist,
do not di rectl y speak to whether the church shou ld be operating colleges.
- 2 ~ ·
I. Issues Arising From the Passing of t he Pionee r Age
A. The Job Well Done
The more precisely one defines t he ind ispensable appropriateness and the
unique c reat iveness of the frontie r col lege , t he mo re clear does it become
t hat t he situati on which called forth t hat cha rac te risti c Ame ri can institution
has passed . From t he open ing of the western te rritories to t he first world
war, a situation was made to o rde r fo r t he contribution which only such
institutions could offer .
What needed to be done was to tra in t he el ite mino rit y who would pro-vide
the cul tural backbone of the transcon ti nental society coming into
be ing . It was a task which could be done on a shoestri ng, wit h teaching
met hods and t he cu rricu lum hardl y open to much va ri a ti on . Bri nging
civil izat ion to a continent was a t the same t ime a vision of exhilarating
magn itude , and a job which was going to have to be done by ordinary
people doing what t hey knew how to do .
It is the very fact t hat t his job was done by vol unta ry agencies which has
changed t he situa tion so t hat t he ir con tri but ion is no longer of the same
nature. The effectiveness of t heir educati ng an el ite was so great that now
far greater numbe rs of young people must be served a t t he college and
un iversi ty level; e ven wit hou t inc reasing spec ial izati on and t he growing
costs of libraries and labora to ri es , to opera te on t he needed scale would
be financially impossible for vol unta ry agenc ies . It is t he very vision of
educati onal excellence foste red by t he fronti e r schools a t t hei r best which
set t he pattern for a level of qual ity which t hey now fi nd t hemselves hard
pushed to provide fo r even a minority of t he young people interested in
college . It is t hus a recogn iti on of t heir achie vemen t when t he larger
soc iety , both t hrough the instrumen t of the sta te and by t he "secularizing"
of the larger chu rch-related school s, has pro vi ded instituti ons which wi 11
be do ing t he bulk of edu cati ng .
Now t ha t it is clear t ha t t he task wi 11 be done one way or anot her and that
society is not utterl y dei;>enden t upon the chu rches• services , we need a
whole new rat ionale if we a re to be able honest ly to make a case for what
could be taken fo r gra nted in anot he r age . Why now t he chu rch college?
(I indica ted above t ha t t he re a re some concerns related to t he Christi an
in schola rship which do not connect direc t ly with t he issue of t he churches '
call to support colleges . It is t he ma rk of the emba rrassment of some chu rch
college t hinking a t t he presen t t ime tha t we fi nd more disc ussion abou t the
nature of trut h and t he Chri sti an 's obl igati on to be cul turally creative,
than about t he central fac t t ha t the church col lege is a n insti tut ion devoted
to teaching young people of a ce rta in age group ce rta in types of curriculum
material a t the expense of chu rc h con tri butors . Most of the quite edifying
things sa id in many of t hese standa rd wo rks a re not relevan t to whether the
church should con tin ue to collec t mone y fo r dormito ri es and libraries . }
- 3 -
B. The Loss of Chu rchly Cha racter
Much commentary has been devoted to the phenomenon of "secu larization 11
by which many colleges with an initia l ecclesiasti cal commitm t have
moved gradually to a "gene ral Ame ri can" ori e nta tion , with spec1 'ic
denom ina tional nor theological commi mento 1
I would submit t hat it is no t as clearly out of order as some seem to
assume when , with t he merging of vo lunta ri ly sponso red higher education
and socially sponsored mass education 1 t he churchl y character of t he
institution d iminishes. in t he wlthe 11ing away of exp Ii c it re igious
identification , the colleges simply reflected t he trend in American society
at large , in which , coupled with a steady increase in chu rch membership,
the churchly mean ingfulness of tha t members hip has progressively dimin-ishedo
If we a re to express regret 8 it shou ld be for t his broader soc i o~
phenomenon and not with t he covert suggestion tha t perhaps t he colleges
were responsible fo r it . If on t he othe r hand we recognize t hat the
aut hori ty of the churches in t hat earl ie r age was more a reflection of t he
prestige of establi shed rel igion in t he European heri tage t han of t he actual
conve rted convi c tion of t he Ameri can popula ti on 1 then we might not be so
sure t hat t he witheri ng away of t his decepti ve c hurchl y aut hori ty was
clearl y a se tback o The churches were t he fo unders of colleges not because
of any deep theologi cal dri ve but because the churches were t he only
clearl y organi zed structures of vol untary social initiative in the frontier
societyo They were not onl y c hurch-related but denom inati on- related not
because any one denomination had a bette r theo logical reason fo r educat ing
than anot her1 nor because each denomina ion had a disti nct educati onal
message , but si mply because t he pl ural istic denominational pattern is t he
pattern of voluntary social relati ons hips; it is , in effect, our kind of
11 establ ishment 11 • Those of us who are not specifi cal ly committed to the
pattern of "established religion " sho uld t·he refore not necessa rily feel that
t he situa tion has fundamentall y changed with t he weaken ing of t hat type
of offi cial reli gious expression in t he semi-publ ic insti utions which
colleges always have been.
C. The Sectarian Schoo I
The awareness / made q i te c I ear by Norman Kraus 0 paper / that t he
pl ural istic denom inational pattern was itsel f t he re li gious establ ishment
of the pioneer age , and t hat t herefore the cl assical college pattern was
not 11 church 11 alone but al ready an inter-action of the church w ith the
larger soc ie ty, shou ld sha rpen ou r percept ion to distingu ish from the church
college not only the much more narrowl y defi ned Bible Institute , committed
only to the trai ning of c hurch worke rs, but al so a t hird type 1 which I should
like to designate as 60:'iSed a ri an 101 without meaning this adjective in a
pejorative sense. The Ira Mi Iler paper has I t hink made cl ear that t here
was abou t t he found ing of Mennonite C lieges and t he reorganizati on of
Goshen College an element o~ enom1 a tional identity and defense which
was not typical of t he classical churc h col lege patte rn 0 There can be in
such an effort of a smal I minority group to ma inta in its identity through an
- 4 -
educational program something defensive and anti-c ultural ; but this is
by no means automatically the case. The degree of separateness and
particular identity of a denom ina ti on is not necessa rily an indication
of its being closed to the larger soci ety or to general cultural values;
wi tness the abiding cultural creativity of Jesu it schools t hrough the
centuries. We shall have to study further whet her t he maintenance of
sectarian identity in our society is e ither a possible or a desirable
function of a church college; my onl y point a t present is that we should
be aware t hat this kind of function is somet hing quite disti nct from the
grand tradition of the church col lege in American history.
D. Integral Constituency Loyal ty
Wi t h the development of t he 11 secta ri an 11 pattern, it was to be expected
not onl y that the adm issions pol ic ies would tend to be tied rather closely
to t he denominational convictions , but t hat we would observe t he
development of two furt her assumpti ons; t hat every loyal member of t he
denomination should prefer t he denominational institution , and that
therefore t he institution is duty bound to find facil ities for all t he
denom ination us children .
It is only within the last five years t hat it has come clearly to the
attention of Mennonites t hat t his pair of assumpti ons is no longer realistic
for us; and if they are not realistic, t hen to be lim ited by them is in fact
clearly wrong, since it means in effect disavowing any pastoral or
educational responsibility for t hose who can go to non-church schools
wi thout fo rfeiting their chu rch membership.
The assumption t hat integral denomination loyal ty wou ld be the ideal. has
a double negative effect once sign ifi cant numbers of students are on non-denom
inati onal campuses. The students t hemselves feel t hat t hey are
beingaccusedofdisloyalty , and unfairly so, for not having chosen a
school which t hey were not sure t hey could afford and where t hey were
not sure t hey cou ld find courses meeti ng t heir need; the college on the
ot her hand feels rejected because it has identifi ed its reason'